This invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating with reduced risk of collision two parts of a body in flight, one of the parts having fins. In particular, it relates to the separation with reduced risk of collision of the payload and finned booster segments of a rocket.
When an airborne body is separated into two or more segments, there is a danger that the two segments will collide and thereby damage one another. This danger is especially acute when one of the segments is decelerated with respect to the other as, for example, with a parachute. The previous design solution to the potential collision problem involved maintaining active attitude control of the spent booster after payload separation, relying upon lift forces to fly the booster out from behind the payload. This solution, however, incurred a high risk that the sensitive inertial measurement unit (rate gyros and accelerometers) and the autopilot computer it necessitated would be damaged because both were located in the front end of the booster, the area of greatest ordnance shock during separation.